


Sounds, Like Penance

by LadyVictory



Series: Rebuild As If From War [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex dies, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I love Alex like she is air I am so sorry, SuperCop - Freeform, The only possible way I can see this occuring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9946055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyVictory/pseuds/LadyVictory
Summary: Deep breath in, deep breath out. "Kara?""Yeah?""Would... would it be okay if I stayed? I'll sleep on the couch."Kara doesn't hesitate. "Yes.""Okay.""Okay."They both fall asleep on the couch, curled around each other, huddled for warmth and a semblance of peace.It's the first sleep either of them have gotten... since.****Alex is gone, and Kara and Maggie are left behind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AN1: Saw a tag of this couple and couldn't fathom a universe where it could happen. Then I had a dream…
> 
> AN2: Alex Danvers is the love of my TV watching life, and I will fight anyone barehanded who says otherwise. That said, I dreamt this nightmare and had to write it down.
> 
> AN3: None of these ladies are making me any money.
> 
> AN4: No one tells me what to do! Err, I mean, I don’t have a beta so excuse the gnarly errors…

_We have not touched the stars,_

_Nor are we forgiven,_

_Which brings us back to the hero's shoulders and a gentleness that comes,_

_Not from the absence of violence,_

_But despite the abundance of it._

_\--Richard Siken, Snow & Dirty Rain_

****

"Alex, no," Kara scolds as the older Danvers suits up. It's mission time and Alex Danvers is gleeful.

"Alex, yes," Alex counters, adjusting the straps on her body armor and loading her new "anti-sun gun" - a lame name Kara coined for a weapon that was supposed to non-lethally deal with Kryptonians.

Fort Rozz has found its way back down to Earth, crashing down in New Mexico (much to Winn and Maggie's amusement). This means Alex Danvers gets to play with some new toys she's been tinkering with in the lab.  
  
The gun was designed to shoot out blasts of synthetic red sunlight, neutralizing powers. Kara still got headaches remembering the calibration process. (Alex would never, _ever_ , shoot Kara with a weapon like that, but she _had_ used her to test the amount of red sun exposure it took to depower a Kryptonian. Her powers had been wonky for a week.)  
  
They let Maggie and James tag along. 

James has proven himself time and again as Guardian, and Maggie Sawyer has become such a fixture at the City DEO office that no one questions it when she locks and loads and takes her place in the Alpha chopper next to Alex. She has to borrow Lucy's old tac gear (everyone else's is too big for her), but neither woman minds.  
  
Alex and Maggie banter the whole way out, making eyes at each other and holding hands.  
  
Kara can't help but sigh wistfully - it is like watching an after credit scene in the most adorable of romcoms, and she is 100% here for it (but also can't help but let her eyes flick over to Guardian - James - and wonder "what if?")

  
****

  
They get there and the once mighty prison is cracked open like an egg. Most of the stasis pods have held, their charges safely asleep, but almost a dozen are empty, and there is only one dead alien body (another Hellgramite, probably unrelated to the one Alex took out when Kara first came out as Supergirl) to indicate what happened.  
  
The remaining awakened prisoners descend on them as soon as they fully land, as if they are trying to cut off easy escape.  
  
Supergirl brawls with a young Kryptonian with black hair and blue eyes that reminds her a little of Kal. They trade blows, and the man is strong and disciplined, but she is fast and clever, and she manages to maneuver him into the path of Alex's new toy. He goes down like his strings were cut, and Kara crows in victory and shares a flyby high five with her sister.  
  
She can hear Maggie chuckle over comms before the older woman's breath whooshes out of her in a painful grunt.  
  
Supergirl looks in the direction she last saw the NCPD detective and sees her on the ground, two large scaly assailants stomping down at her. She's quick, managing to dodge for the most part, but the blows that land look painful and she can't quite shake them enough to get up.  
  
"Maggie!" Alex cries, frantic.  
  
"I got her!" The superhero assures, zipping over and body checking both lizardmen like they are stuffed animals.  
  
They go tumbling off into the distance, and Supergirl turns and offers Maggie a hand.  
  
"My hero..." the detective wheezes, accepting the hand, blood trailing down from the corner of her mouth even as she smiles.  
  
Supergirl gives her a once over with her x-ray vision, notes two cracked ribs and a fractured knuckle but otherwise all clear.  
  
"You're welcome, ma'am. Doing what I ca-"  
  
She feels it as it is happening - her world coming to an end.  
  
Alex goes down.  
  
Two Kryptonians flank her, enraged. She manages to depower one, but the other...  
  
The sound of her neck snapping will wake Kara out of nightmares for the rest of her life.  
  
"No..." Kara murmurs, eyes wide, legs becoming jelly.  
  
" _ALEX_ !" Maggie screams. She runs so fast she could be mistaken for a Kryptonian.  
  
Kara watches, unable to move, as Maggie shoots the enemy combatants in the head with her kryptonite bullets (they explode like overripe fruit hitting a stone floor).

She watches as the smaller woman drops to her knees, scooping her lover into her arms and cradling her to her body, rocking her as if she is just sleeping and not...  
  
The world seems to go silent (like Alex’s heartbeat, like Alex's lungs, like Alex), except for the sounds of Maggie sobbing.  
  
Maggie holds Alex close, begs her to open her eyes, to breathe, to move, to live.

Alex is so pale.  
  
Kara can't move. Kara can't breathe. Kara wishes she could trade her heartbeat for Alex's.

She has never seen Alex so still before.  
  
J'onn approaches, grief written in every movement of his body, but Maggie startles, pointing her gun at him. He holds his hands up, kneeling beside them, changing back to Hank, back to a familiar face.  
  
Maggie's expression crumbles, and she curls around Alex's body again.  
  
"Please, please, come on Danvers, come on Alex, please," she whispers into tangled hair. Alex does not respond, can't.  
  
Kara realizes the battle is over - they've won, so to speak.  

All at once, all the sounds of the world come rushing back to her, like angry hornets in her ears.

Kara feels so cold.

  
****

  
Kara doesn't know how she gets back to National City.

(She doesn't remember floating over to Maggie and Alex and lifting them both into the chopper. She doesn't remember holding them both as they made their way back to the coast.)  
  
Kara doesn't know who tells Eliza.

(She doesn't remember Vasquez coming to her and telling her that her foster mother is on her way. Doesn't remember Eliza calling her phone, doesn't remember crying as it goes to voicemail for the 8th time.)  
  
Kara doesn't know who calls Snapper to tell him she will be gone for a while.

(She doesn't remember James telling her she can take all the time she needs. That her job will always be waiting for her whenever she is ready.)  
  
Kara doesn't know who makes all the arrangements.

(She doesn't remember Maggie telling a strangely calm Eliza that Alex had just updated her Living Will because of a patent she filed. She doesn't remember Eliza and J'onn asking if she wants any input on the music or the headstone or the dress...)  
  
Kara doesn't remember anything until after the funeral. She just knows Alex is gone.

 

****

  
Kara doesn't leave her apartment. Doesn't shower. Doesn't eat. The world is so loud that it hurts, just like when she first got to Earth.

Kara just sits on the couch and listens for Alex's heartbeat.  
  
After three days, she hears a familiar rhythm. She yanks the door open so fast she rips one of the hinges.  
  
It's Maggie - _not Alex, of_ course _it's not, don't be stupid Kara_ \- blurry-eyed but sober, and sadder than Kara has ever seen someone be.  
  
The detective has a bag of Mexican takeout and three orders of potstickers balanced on top of a pizza box from Kara's favorite pizzeria.  
  
Kara just looks at her, too tired for words.  
  
Maggie smiles a small, pained smile.  
  
"Figured I'd drop by." Kara notices a bag from the small Japanese bakery down the street dangling from one arm. "Haven't seen you since... since," she says, shrugging one shoulder.  
  
"So what?" Kara asks, finally finding her voice. It's scratchy and broken from lack of use. She can't bring herself to care that she is being rude.  
  
"Sew buttons, Baby Danvers. You gonna keep a lady waiting, or are you at least gonna let me put this stuff down? It's heavy."  
  
"I don't want to talk," Kara mutters, a little petulant, but moves aside to let Maggie in.  
  
The smaller woman bumps her with her hip as she passes by, smiling that sad smile.  
  
"Then don't. Eat instead."  
  
So she does.  
  
After, the sit next to each other on the couch, quiet. Maggie is warm, Kara can feel it from across the couch (they are as far away from each other as possible while occupying the same piece of furniture).  
  
Kara hasn't felt warm  since... since.  
  
Shifting minutely, Kara pauses to see if Maggie notices.  
  
They hadn't been close before - not hugging close or even casually chatting about their day close - but Maggie Sawyer had been important to her sister. Had been good to her, first awkward missteps aside.  
  
Kara is lost and cold and so, so lonely.

Without turning her head from the TV - they have an episode of some elimination reality show or another on - Maggie lifts her arm. Kara is in the space faster than is technically human (she is careful, though, because Maggie is already injured, and fragile as any other creature on this planet).  
  
"Still don't wanna talk," Kara says, eyes drooping, shivering a little at the contact with another living being.  
  
She hasn't touched anyone since she let Alex and Maggie go at the DEO.  
  
Maggie doesn't say anything for long enough that Kara begins to drift off, then, "Me neither. Is, is that weird? That I came here because I wanted... quiet? It's just, it's been so loud and confusing in my head."  
  
Kara nods. She understands.  
  
"The only sound I've been able to, uh, make out since... since, has been your heartbeat," Kara admits, and even though she was the one that said she didn't want to talk, she keeps going. "It was the first thing I've really heard since. Like, I recognized it. I thought... I thought you were _her_ for a second, 'cause I, I always hear her's. Heard. It used to... help me, when I first got here."  
  
"Help?" Maggie prompts, absently squeezing her closer, arm curving around her protectively (as if she isn't bulletproof, as if she can't bend steel with her bare hands).  
  
"Yeah, uh my-my senses, they’re, you know... _heightened_ . And I, when I first got here I couldn't control them. I got overwhelmed a lot. Freaked out. But then Al-" Kara can't bring herself to say Alex's name yet, stumbles but catches herself. "Then _she_ would come into my room or under the table or wherever I was hiding, and take my hand and put it over her chest so I could feel it. And she would-" her breath catches, voice trembles, but she keeps going. "We would breathe together. She said I should concentrate on my breathing and her heartbeat when it got bad. That it would help center me or something. And... and it did. I had a lot of panic attacks then, and it just, it made it bearable."  
  
Maggie nods now, like she understands.  
  
"Yeah. Makes sense. So _Danvers_ ." The detective takes a deep, shuddering breath. "I... I get nightmares. Everyone who worked the Gotham beat does, and moving here and working the science police ain't much better. When I would wake up like that, she-" now Maggie's voice catches, like something big is lodged in her throat. It takes her a few long moments to swallow it down, and when she does her voice is small and rough. "When I woke up scared, too scared to go back to sleep, she would put my head on her chest and-and tell me to just listen and breathe. That she would keep watch and I could let go."  
  
Her breath hitches again and she shudders. Kara cuddles close, arm coming to wrap around Maggie's stomach.  
  
Maggie's free hand comes up to cover her own eyes, as if she is ashamed. She doesn't cry though, just breathes heavy then clears her throat.  
  
"I'm... I'm sorry you lost your sister."  
  
"Thank you." Kara says, because she doesn't know how else to respond to that statement. She presses her cheek as hard as she dares against Maggie's collarbone. "I'm sorry you lost your partner," she says, because it's true.  
  
Maggie lets out a thick, wet bark of laughter.  
  
They settle, mindlessly watching the TV a while. The numb sadness starts to creep over Kara again.  
  
Just before it engulfs her whole, slipping over her ears and eyes and nose and mouth, she feels Maggie shift. Feels her ease the fist she hadn't known she was clenching open. The smaller woman moves the now loose fingers up and over her chest, over her heart.  
  
"It's not the same," Maggie whispers, resting her cheek against Kara's head like she can't bear to hold it up anymore.  
  
"No," Kara agrees, because it isn't.  
  
Maggie sighs, but it ends in a chuckle.  
  
"I like your honesty, Baby Danvers."  
  
"Kara."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Please just... call me Kara."  
  
She can tell when Maggie realizes why she's insisting. She locks up for a moment, tense as a bowstring, heartbeat stuttering.  
  
"Don't say sorry, okay? I just can't, you know?”  
  
Maggie nods again, absently pulls her closer, so tight that Kara knows it must be agony on her ribs.  
  
"Yeah. Kara." Deep breath in, deep breath out. "Kara?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Would... would it be okay if I stayed? I'll sleep on the couch."  
  
Kara doesn't hesitate. "Yes."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Okay."  
  
They both fall asleep on the couch, curled around each other, huddled for warmth and a semblance of peace.

It's the first sleep either of them have gotten... since.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ache in Maggie’s chest intensifies to almost physical pain, but she tamps it down and grins back.
> 
> She is cutting this off before it goes too far.
> 
> Kara gives her puppy-dog eyes, looking between Maggie and her second sandwich. With a sigh, the detective slides her plate over.
> 
> Tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN 1: See Chapter 1 for disclaimers.
> 
> AN 2: I lied, I need one more part to make this work. It'll be a little rocky, but not more deaths, I promise.
> 
> AN 3: I am genuinely surprised by all the feedback I recieved, considering the premise of the fic. Thank you all, I hope to be able to bring y'all through the hurt and back into hope.

It becomes a habit.

  
The longest Maggie manages to last without going over is five days. Five days of no sleep and staring at her walls, practically tearing out her hair.  
  
She tries to fight it, she really does, but she finds herself over at Kara's place at least three times a week, sometimes more. She hates that she is imposing - the kid should have her space.

( _Twenty-six_ is hardly a kid, but when a girl wears that much corduroy and unironically owns copies of 13 Going On 30 and more than 2 boy band posters - even if they are hidden in the bathroom and hall closet - it is hard to think of her as a real-live grown up.)  
  
Kara never seems to mind though. She's always waiting at the door, repaired now and double reinforced, oversized comfort sweater doing nothing to hide the fact that she is curled in on herself like a pillbug.

  
  
Maggie starts to pay attention to the state of the apartment. Besides her incredibly comprehensive professional training on spotting signs of abuse and neglect (thanks Gotham CPS), Maggie has had enough experience with bad situations to recognize signs.  
  
After the first time, when she noticed the smell of musty trash coming from Kara's garbage - like she hadn't taken it out since _before_ \- Maggie doesn't see signs of new take out. (She took out all the trash on her way out to work, because she is not a savage and because Kara looked so tired when she woke her up to make her go to the actual bed.) She makes sure to bring food everytime she comes.  
  
If she were human, Maggie is sure Kara would have lost at least like 15 lbs by now. Her Kryptonian biology keeps her from wasting away to skin and bones as long as there is sun (Alex explained it once, when they were talking about Supergirl and how her strength worked, but the details escape Maggie now), so she hasn't lost mass, but... She seems _frail_ now, like her body is vapor, barely hanging in the air.  
  
Most nights they don't talk much. They eat in comfortable if solemn silence and retreat to their corners of the couch to watch something. The news is too depressing, because even though somehow Supergirl is still doing her self-appointed duty  (it's J'onn taking up the slack now, when he isn't needed as Hank) there is just too much evil in National City, let alone the world to have a news cycle without horror.  
  
They usually settle on something streaming. They had tried to continue Game of Thrones but neither of them could bring herself to watch it without Alex, so now it was usually something mindless, where people compete or someone's life is picked apart and restructured by a snippy Brit.  
  
They always end up cuddling within 30 minutes, bodies fitting together like living puzzle pieces. Kara, despite being so much longer and solid, always ends up wrapped in Maggie’s arms, her ear pressed against her chest. Maggie thinks the blonde times her breathing to the heartbeat she hears, but the thought is too painful to investigate, so Maggie just makes sure she holds her tight (much tighter than a human would need) and close.

  
  
When Kara's had a really bad day, when Maggie finds her in yesterday's clothes staring at the window or the wall, they turn off the TV and Maggie makes Kara read her stupid listicles from the internet. At first Kara resists, but even she isn't immune to the puppy eyes and dimple's the detective wields like a weapon.

  
  
It goes from a habit to a routine.  
  
After 2 months, when Kara can bring herself to go back to work, Maggie picks her up on Friday evenings and drops her off on Monday mornings. She goes home Monday night but always ends up back at Kara's by Thursday.  
  
Maggie has been riding the desk while her ribs heal, a blessing that allows her to have free nights and weekends, and she spends them making sure Kara eats and sleeps and ignoring the gaping hole in her own chest where her heart used to sit.

  
  
Maggie doesn't cry, not after her breakdown in the field. She's a survivor. She has never _lost_ someone like this before, but being ripped out of her parent's home at the tender age of 14 for being herself has taught her to function when her insides are raw and bleeding.  
  
She knows Kara lost _everything_ she ever knew before coming to Earth. It surprises her that the younger (older? it is confusing) woman is so... broken. Not that she doesn't understand, she knows how close the Danvers' sisters were. Just, she wonders why Kara can't seem to keep moving.

(She knows why - she knows Alex was the one that got Kara through that nightmarish first year, and many years after. She wishes Alex were here for herself, but she wishes she were her for Kara _more_ .)

  
It takes Maggie almost 6 months to get a laugh out of Kara. By then, Kara has returned to being Supergirl and working with the DEO, but while she does smile - especially for children - she hasn't _laughed_ since watching Alex fall.  
  
They are sitting on the couch, watching a show about a dude who goes around and eats food for a living, Kara's toes tucked under Maggie's thigh (for someone powered by sunlight, Kara Danvers had _freezing_ cold fucking toes, or so Maggie had screeched the first time she had wedged them under her leg). The volume is turned low, because Kara has SuperHearing and Maggie's ears hurt from an earlier incident at work (alien fugitive with a sonic disruptor gun), and they are taking turns making up the dialogue for the big bro and the short order cook of a greasy spoon somewhere in Kentucky.  
  
As the dude shoves an oozing cheese and chicken concoction into his mouth, the NCPD detective starts singing Hurt by Johnny Cash.  
  
The laugh is a surprised and scandalized bark, as Kara softly bats at her arm. They both stop short, catching each other's eyes in shock.  
  
Knowing better than to comment, Maggie plays it off like it's no big deal, going back to making up dialogue, doing both parts until Kara shakes off her daze and picks up the slack.

Kara spends the rest of the episode looking over at Maggie with an expression of gentle awe.  
  
Maggie decides to go home that night, not wanting to crowd Kara - maybe give her the space to process the fact that she is still capable of enjoying small things, even without Alex. It's a Saturday, which is not a Home Night, but Maggie thinks it may be for the best.  
  
Kara looks like she wants to argue, but she just pulls Maggie in for a long, tight hug at the door instead. They've gotten to a point where they are comfortable being casually physical with each other now - Kara is a touchy-feely kinda girl - but this is different, somehow.  
  
Maggie smiles all the way home, still desperately sad, but feeling for the first time since Alex left that maybe things won't always be so fucking bleak.  
  
(She still thinks _left_ , still can't think _died_ because then she starts thinking about how it was her fault, how it should have been her. Easier this way, because as much as she would love to sink into her own personal despair-spiral, she can't - she has to be there for Kara.)

  
She wakes up in the morning to the smell of coffee and bacon. She is sure she is having a stroke or an aneurysm until she hears movement in her kitchen.  
  
She's up with her gun in her hand before she can properly connect the dots.  
  
Kara looks startled, standing by the stove in her pjs (her SuperSuit is draped over the back of Maggie's couch), holding a pan of sizzling pork goodness.  
  
"Kara, wha-what the hell?" Maggie grumbles, bringing her empty hand up to rub at her blurry  eyes. She puts the safety back on her service pistol and sets it on the table as she approaches the flustered looking alien.  
  
"Y-you always bring me food and make sure I'm okay. I was, um, I wanted to return the favor."  
  
"Kara. It's 7am on Sunday morning."  
  
"Bacon and cheese breakfast sandwich day," the blonde agrees, smiling tentatively. It looks uncertain around the edges, so Maggie reaches out with a sigh and squeezes her shoulder, then takes the pan to help.  
  
"How did you even get in here?" The detective asks, brain starting to normalize at the familiar warm presence of her friend.  
  
She slept like shit (like she usually does if she doesn't have eyes or at least ears on Kara), and is extra cranky for it.  
  
"Your window was open?”  
  
The coffee smell burns through the cobwebs in the short woman's brain.  
  
"Supergirl flew into my window? Seriously?"  
  
Kara shrugs, cheeks flushed pink.  
  
"You left last night and I... It was Saturday," the younger woman says, blinking rapidly. "I, you, I'm just never _alone_ on Saturdays..."  
  
Maggie is sure she sees tears in Kara's eyes, and her heart aches for the girl.

"Oh honey..."  
  
She knows she's been taking up most of Kara's time. It's been, god she can't remember how long since the blonde has spent anytime outside of the DEO with Winn or James or any of her other friends. Maggie feels guilty, like she's doing some sort of harm to the kid. Maybe unconsciously making her dependent on their nights (Maggie studiously ignores that maybe _she_ needs these nights as much as Kara seems to). She knows she should back off, let Kara ease back into her life again, even if the thought of it makes her itchy and tense, puts the tang of fear in her mouth.  
  
"No, it's, I'm _okay_ ." Kara assures, smile softening, becoming more real. "I just, I missed you."  
  
There is a light in Kara's eyes that makes Maggie stop short. Makes her chest tighten a little and a weird, light feeling race through her.  
  
Her stomach drops.

Oh no.  
  
The detective _knows_ the look on Kara's face, that tone of voice she is using. Knows what it means that when the blonde looks down and then back up at her through her lashes. She's been down this road before, with _another_ Danvers.  
  
She pretends that _this_ time, the butterflies are fear and not something _else_ (something like mutual interest, because that would be so beyond wrong it would be sacrilegious, and a new layer of Hell would have to be invented just for her).  
  
(She did this last time too, of course, because Alex had been so _new_ , and raw, and God why did this keep happening to her?)  
  
There are a million things that spring to Maggie's tongue, some of them panicked, some of them sarcastic, all of them brush offs. She knows it would be smarter to be harsh now, nip this thing in the butt before it got out of hand, but... It would hurt Kara. And the thought of hurting Kara makes her feel sick down to her bones.  
  
Maggie smiles back, small and tight, and finishes making the sandwiches, laying six on a plate for Kara and two for herself. She shoves over the (real) maple syrup, watching the Kryptonian heat it with her laser vision before smothering her breakfast in the sticky stuff.  
  
Kara is too good for her. Too pure a soul to subject to how royally fucked up Maggie is, especially right now. The blonde is vulnerable right now, still grieving (so is Maggie, but she pushes that aside, pushes it deep down like she has since the first time she showed up at Kara's door).  
  
The detective makes the decision to put distance between them, both physical and emotional. It's for the best.  
  
Kara deserves to have time to heal, to be with her friends and move on and find someone who isn't... who is good for her. She deserves not to be saddled with her sister's ex (not by choice, but it still counts -  Maggie is an ex not a widow, because it had been over a year but Maggie hadn't asked Alex the big question yet even though she wanted to, it was still too soon). Kara deserves the freedom to get better without Maggie around to remind her of what was lost.  
  
(It's Maggie's fault anyway, if she hadn't _been_ there, if she had been able to deal with those aliens alone, if she hadn't distracted Supergirl... Time enough to rip herself apart later. First, she has to take care of Kara.)  
  
"You're giving me a clogged artery just by watching you." Maggie delivers the expected line around a small hard lump in her throat, a little slower than she normally would.  
  
Kara smiles again - and again it activates the butterflies in Maggie's stomach ( _crap, crap , crap, absolutely NOT Sawyer_ ).

The blonde looks at the smaller woman over the tops of her glasses.

  
"Nope. Heart's healthy and strong," she assures, not quite ready to be playful but putting up the effort.  
  
Maggie mock glares, a queasy feeling settling over her. She fights it, going for normal so as not to freak the younger woman out.  
  
"What did I tell you about using your creepy x-ray vision on me, Blondie?"  
  
"Pfft, uh, it's not _creepy_ ! And, you're welcome for saving you the specialist co-pay."  
  
"When I end up growing a new arm or something, I'm blaming you..." the detective counters, totally lame but she is off her game.  
  
Kara blushes again, eyes going round and earnest.  
  
"You know that won't happen, right? That my powers, I mean I'd never, _ever_ do anything to hurt you or put you in danger?"  
  
Maggie closes her eyes and groans inside. She is not handling things well at all. _Smooth Sawyer._  
  
"Of course, Kara. I know I'm safe with you."  
  
Kara nods, relieved, and Maggie feels better too.

"Good. I just know human science is so _primitive_ , I wanted to be sure you didn't really believe my vision - which isn't _technically_ x-ray vision, by the way - would cause that sort of mutation." Kara's tone is sweet as the syrup that still sticks to her plate (she's managed to eat all but one of her sandwiches somehow over the course of the conversation).  
  
Maggie gapes at her, stunned.  
  
"You messing with me?" She accuses. Kara shrugs, the picture of innocence. "You jerk!"  
  
Kara laughs, a small giggle (her second laugh in over half a year, both thanks to Maggie, the detective's treacherous mind supplies) and eats her last sandwich.

The ache in Maggie’s chest intensifies to almost physical pain, but she tamps it down and grins back.

She is cutting this off before it goes too far.

Kara gives her puppy-dog eyes, looking between Maggie and her second sandwich. With a sigh, the detective slides her plate over.

Tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last section will be a mix of Maggie and Kara.
> 
> Maggie pulls away and becomes a mess.
> 
> Kara is no fool, and will suffer none either.
> 
> They maybe find that ray of sunshine amidst all that rain.


	3. Update

Hi.

So, I couldn't get them together in two chapters. But that's okay. I'll be making this the first of a set of a two fic series instead. They will be finding their way to each other in the next story...

First part should be up in the next few days. Thanks for sticking with it, y'all. I am going to to my best to make it worthyhe angst for you. <3

 

 **EDIT:** The continution is up and running, with 7 out of 8 chapters (around 30k) posted!

**Author's Note:**

> I have been in a weird headspace. I blame this on stress...


End file.
